The Slow Cooker

With time, Bay Leaf could become a healthy haven.

Tags:

The Tofu Asparagus Special IMAGE: AMY OULETTE

The bay leaf's significance is twofold:

In the modern era, it's a culinary resource, and in mythological times, it was a lucky herb. In ancient Greece, fans crowned victorious athletes with bay-leaf garlands. The menu of Southeast Division Street's Bay Leaf restaurant was created with a similar intention—to promote healthful prowess.

Bay Leaf's owners (and New York Chinese restaurant vets), Paul and Shannon Wang designed this vegetarian stronghold to provide patrons with a positive environment. And its well-spaced tables and sea-green walls do elicit relaxation with a cup of Pu-erh, an earthy, reddish-brown tea. The menu is extensive, with entrees ranging in style from satay to stir fry and hot pot—without a single dish over $10.

A hit starter: a snappy papaya salad ($4.95) with just enough crushed peanut and a taut, vinegary dressing. Misses: gluey vegetable dumplings ($6.95) and unpleasantly warm lettuce wraps ($5.95), a mix of indiscernible cubed vegetables and pine nuts on thin romaine leaves. On one visit, we also pounded the eponymous Bay Leaf appetizer ($6), a brilliant-green composition of steamed Chinese leek, mashed broad beans, and tofu. But on another evening the dish disappointed; it was singed on the outside, while crystallized inside.

Mains are also uneven. The menu pimps a spicy "Green Curry Delight" ($8.95) served in a hot pot. It showed up at our table congealed, on a cold plate, in a cake-batter-sweet sauce. One will fare better with the tofu clay pot ($8.95) since it actually arrives in one, its melange of Napa cabbage, fried tofu, thread noodles, bamboo shoots and carrots simmering in a rich, cozy broth.

The best thing on the menu, for now, comes at the end of it: The volcano ice cream ($2.95) is a scoop of vanilla rolled through sweetened corn flakes, topped roughly with chocolate and booze, and set afire. It's better than you remember from old-school suburban Mexican chain restaurants.

Service is pleasant; the bigger issue is the kitchen. One dinner our spring rolls ($3) never showed, and entrees arrived before appetizers. Lunch is more serene, but food delivery remains uneven. Its delays recall a cheesy line my mother always tosses out in slow restaurants: "Ha ha, they're milking the cow out back." At Bay Leaf, I think we waited for them to build a time machine, grab some flint, and return.

With its softly Zen space and earnest meatless menu, Bay Leaf has potential to become a valued vegetarian choice in Portland as it matures. But for now, it's still teething.